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Erin Andrews reveals secret battle with cervical cancer

The NFL reporter and "Dancing With The Stars" host revealed she underwent surgery for cervical cancer last fall.
/ Source: TODAY

Whether you know Erin Andrews as a Fox NFL reporter or as the host for "Dancing With The Stars," there's another important thing to know about her: she's a fighter.

Andrews, 38, made headlines last spring after a long court battle against Michael David Barrett, the man who had filmed her changing by altering the peephole in the door to her room, and the West End Hotel partners and Windsor Capital Group, the companies that manage the hotel where the crime occurred.

And just a few months later she waged another fight — against cervical cancer, she recently revealed to Sports Illustrated's The MMQB.

In June 2016, Andrews went to her doctor for a routine check up and wasn't too concerned when they told her they wanted to run some additional tests. Andrews was ready to move on with her life and get back to work.

A few months later, she was preparing to cover a NFL game when her doctor followed up with the results: she had cervical cancer, and would need surgery as soon as possible.

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"When you hear the word cancer, you fear the worst," her father, Steve Andrews, told Sports Illustrated's The MMQB. "When it's your child, you think to yourself, you think to God: Take me, not her. She has been through enough. She is just getting her life back."

The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2017, about 12,830 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed and about 4,210 women will die from cervical cancer.

Andrews' surgery was scheduled for October 2016, and two days afterward she was back at work, filming a feature with Green Bay Packers' Jordy Nelson.

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“After the trial everyone kept telling me, ‘You’re so strong, for going through all of this, for holding down a job in football, for being the only woman on the crew,’” Andrews told Sports Illustrated's The MMQB. “Finally I got to the point where I believed it too. ‘Hey, I have cancer, but dammit, I am strong, and I can do this.’”

In November, she returned to the doctor for another procedure. On November 17, doctors informed her that her margins were clear (no cancer cells are seen at the outer edge of the tissue that was removed) and she wouldn't need radiation or chemotherapy.

Though if we had to guess, Andrews didn't take much of a break to celebrate. Her dedication to her work and football is still her guiding force.

“Should I have been standing for a full game five days after surgery? Let’s just say the doctor didn’t recommend that,” Andrews says. “But just as I felt during my trial, sports were my escape. I needed to be with my crew.”

For more information on cervical cancer, visit The American Cancer Society.